Rating: 
Summary: The Story of the Eye
Review: Does knowledge elevate us or demean us? Can you really just be an observer with out being a active participant? Can the look champion the voyeur?All these questions and more are dealt with skillfully by fantastic cast and crew. Rent it if you like twisted sex-thrillers and are not shocked by sexually explicit tales. Rent it if you are in any doubt that we can devolve into animals at the drop of a skirt.
Rating: 
Summary: Atrocious
Review: I admire director/actor Roman Polanski very much; not only because he can be a consumate filmaker and has made some of the more interesting films of the late 20th. Century, but also because he has managed to surive the loss of his family to the Nazi gas chambers, the loss of his pregnant wife to the Manson lunatics as well as many other problems. "Bitter Moon", in my opinion, has no redemming features whatsoever. If I didn't know that Polanski was involved I never would have believed it. The script is trite, corny and shallow. The acting performances, without exception, are utterly pedestrian and completely unbelievable. In case anyone believes that my distaste for "bitter Moon" stems from its sexual or violent content let me assure you that is certainly not the case. I did, however, find the sexual content to be absolutely laughable. I am a great fan of intricate and thoughtful movies; some of my favourite directors are Atom Egoyan, Krystof Kiewslowski, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, Akira Kurosawa and, indeed, Roman Polanski. However intricate, deep, simple or spectacular a film may be, it must be engaging. In my opinion, "Bitter Moon" is a laborious and boring film. I wouldn't be surprised if Polanski wishes he had never made it.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this DVD based upon the customer reviews, so having seen the film, I have to put on record the dissenting review. The entire formula plays out as a man's sexual fantasy and cynical POV that initial perfect love is necessarily obsessive and therefore has to run dry, perhaps abruptly, like switching off a lightbulb (seems a less than mature POV). The object of desire is the director's real-life wife, so that actually tells us more about him (the director) than it lends any real-life credibility to the proceedings. Hugh Grant gives a restrained yet appropriately edgy performance, the best in the film, though the leading lady is appropriate lovely, though never comes off as hard-edged as she needs to be, for the latter scenes. Coyote is irritating like the Gollum character. If you like this type of movie ordinarily, I would recommend the more extreme COMFORT OF STRANGERS which takes place in Venice; otherwise rent this movie first, rather than risk wasting your money on a purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this DVD based upon the customer reviews, so having seen the film, I have to put on record the dissenting review. The entire formula plays out as a man's sexual fantasy and cynical POV that initial perfect love is necessarily obsessive and therefore has to run dry, perhaps abruptly, like switching off a lightbulb (seems a less than mature POV). The object of desire is the director's real-life wife, so that actually tells us more about him (the director) than it lends any real-life credibility to the proceedings. Hugh Grant gives a restrained yet appropriately edgy performance, the best in the film, though the leading lady is appropriate lovely, though never comes off as hard-edged as she needs to be, for the latter scenes. Coyote is irritating like the Gollum character. If you like this type of movie ordinarily, I would recommend the more extreme COMFORT OF STRANGERS which takes place in Venice; otherwise rent this movie first, rather than risk wasting your money on a purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Seductively Cruel, Sinfully Seductive
Review: I first saw this film years ago, and was immediately amazed at not only it's intensity, but where it deliberately dared to go, both with its storyline and dialogue. When I saw it again years later, I was even more impressed than previously thought. At it's essence, the movie is a love story, set in Paris, between Oscar (Peter Coyote) and Mimi, played by the stunningly beautifull Emmanuelle Seigner. Yet this ititial passion, escalates to a such a lust, that any true feelings they have for each other are overwhelmed by the desire to repeat that initial exeburance. Soon Oscar gets bored with the isolation that Mimi brings, and begins to resent their relationship. While Mimi, despite her threats to the contrary, can no longer live without Oscar, having become too drained emotionally to find love outside of their now passionless affair. What begins next, is the true mettle of this film, and takes it on a different course, one filled with chauvanistic cruelty, and female revenge. All the while, this story is not being played out in real time, but retold, on a cruise ship, to stodgy British pip Hugh Grant, whose uneasiness during the more absurdly erotic scenes extends to the viewer as well. Grant, is on his honeymoon, with his wife Fiona, but due to his immediate attraction to Mimi, spends his days not with his wife, but in the cabin of Oscar. It is there, where he listens, like a voyeur, to the story of Oscar and Mimi in an effort to learn more about his new object of desire, and to parlay that into getting her into bed. What culminates at the end is both shocking and sad, and yet a resolution to the extreme passions of all involved. It is not Roman Polanski's best film, but unlike Chinatown, his most entertaining. This movie does not lose it's luster after a couple of viewings. Recommend it to your friends, and go buy yourself a copy. Not to be missed, by any standard.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wow!
Review: I just recently saw this extrodinary film and found it to be one of Romans best.Very funny and well told,I'll recommend this film to anyone who has a sense of humor and dosent mind explicit sex scenes. Directed beautifully with dynamic acting.The story is never boring and always intreging,my only complante now is where can I find the book this film is based on.
Rating:
Summary: I missed the joke
Review: I like films which are sexy and have a cruel wit about them. But unfortunately for me I totally missed the humor in the film which must have been blacker than black. Mostly what I saw was a couple engaged in bitter acts of mental and physical cruelty. This is Hugh Grant before he became the clumsy, good natured but self deprecating actor most people associate him with in Sense and Sensibilities and Notting Hill. The whole experience for me was unpleasant and I actually stepped out of the theater for a few minutes as I really wasn't enjoying myself. Roman Polansky has had a hard life. His mother and father were imprisoned in a concentration camp, (his mother died there) and his wife Sharon Tate was cut open by Charles Manson's gang. Its not hard to see why his films typically reflect a debauched and unpleasant view of love sex and relationships. What should have been pleasant in his life was turned perverse. With the exception of Rosemary's Baby, I haven't enjoyed much of the content of his films. Rosemary's Baby works in part because Rosemary is a nice counterpoint whom the audience can relate to. Bitter Moon lacks that sympathetic element. I have good friends who enjoy films like Penny's from Heaven, War of the Roses and The Cook the Wife the Thief and her Lover that are slow paced and feature people who callously afflict one another with the most unkind of abuses. I somehow feel a little soiled after watching stuff like this.
Rating:
Summary: POLANSKI IS A MASTER STORYTELLER!
Review: I liked this film very much. Two couples: first -Grant & Thomas- who have nothing to say to each other (and try to hide their growing separation going on a cruise); the second -Coyote and Seigner- who have already gone through the peaks of love, desire, disappointment, separation, hate, contempt (and live stuck to each other). This is the premisse: two very different couples on different stages of their relationships. The story is told (Coyote tells his story to Grant) in flashback and menages to affect the present relationship between Grant and his wife. Polanski, without moralism or any judgemental objective, tell the story of how feelings can be transformed into many other things. How people can go over the top with what they feel. By the time the film opened, some people said it was voyeuristic and exploitive. I don't agree with that. I think this film tells an adult and powerful story about Men, Women, their excesses and the pain they can cause. As you may imagine, the film, sometimes, gets violent and some sex scenes are quite bold (without being either vulgar nor porno-chic). To me, everything is in the right place. I loved the ending. It was tragic and (yet) full of hope. The cinematography (as in all Polanski films) is great. The music by Vangelis is also great (I loved the scene when Coyote sends Seigner away). This film is obviously a work by a master storyteller/filmmaker. All the actors are peerless. If only James Cameron had a story like this in front of his Titanic backdrop!! -(laughs) Remember: this is a story about people and the severe changes their relationships can go through. See this film as an adult.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but not disgusting,Romantic but not moronic
Review: I think this movie is really very entertaining . But I don't know why very few people know about it . I'm honored to be the first one here to write a review, and a promotion.
If you like Tie Me Up,Tie me Down, I'm sure this one won't let you down. Mimi ,who was a merry and naive young lady fell for the humorous and charming womanizer-Oscar. The couple did all the wild things we only fantasize.Oscar ,who is a writer,speakes with a lot of BIG words which makes his speech cogent,yet funny.Despite of its many sex scenes ,it's still a movie leading you to the brooding over marriage--Even the most romantic love fades...how shall we cope with our unfaithful other half? Let go of it or torment yourself with it?
This is an underated movie . It is a hidden treasure for you to savor !
Rating:
Summary: Less than 3 stars?!! Madness....
Review: I was compelled to write this review based on the handfull of negative reviews (like the one below). I think this movie is an absolute gem. First off, taking a step back, this movie isn't about two good people that meet and fall in love. I believe this movie is about what happens when two very base, very bored, and largely devoid of virtue collide. It's about the danger in irrational immoral entanglement (again, this is just my opinion). You see, the sex scenes (some of them anyway) are meant to be laughable. These two hit bottom together and reach (what Peter Coyote, the male partner calls) "sexual bankruptcy"....right in front of your eyes, they get slaughtered by their own insane urges! Brilliant, strange, interesting, depressing, important (especially if you're prone to confuse urges with love). Peter Coyote gives an amazing performance, Polanski offered up his own wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) as the temptress (c'mon, you've got to give him at least one star for having enough love for this film to direct his own wife through sex scenes). If you haven't seen Bitter Moon, don't miss this film. I think it raises important questions and warnings about certain popular behavior (or at least tendencies) in relationships. All the while being entertaining, and at times utterly shocking. Hope this was helpful.
| 
